


Naked

by fleaflofloyd



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24230983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleaflofloyd/pseuds/fleaflofloyd
Summary: She's being overly emotional in her exhaustion, that's all.She just needs to get some sleep.----A short oneshot for the 'I never thought I'd be the one' universe. Please go read my other CTM fics first if you have not. Comments welcome.
Relationships: Lucille Anderson/Valerie Dyer
Comments: 1
Kudos: 45





	Naked

Lucille watches the curtains sway. 

The oppressive heat of the August night has not relented in the hours she's been trying to get to sleep, the air muggy in a way that reminds her of Jamaica. She's been here long enough to be acclimated to England's chillier weather now. To snow and rain and always needing layers. It's why sleep has alluded her, even though she's stripped down to nothing and the sheet has been kicked off. 

Valerie had done that last night, in what they'd thought had been the peak of the heat. 

It must be at least a few degrees hotter tonight. 

So off the sheet had gone again, Valerie chuckling at her pedalling legs before Lucille had kissed her amusement away. 

"Too hot to make love to you," Valerie had told her, and she'd nodded, easing back to her space on her side. Their pinkies had stayed linked until Val had rolled over in her sleep. 

Thank goodness Cyril had sorted out the beds a few weeks ago, otherwise she probably would've demanded Val sleep elsewhere. 

Her kindness only went so far in this sticky weather. 

Lucille lets out a huff at herself. 

_Who are you kidding? You would've let her stay here and quietly retreated downstairs to the couch once she'd fallen asleep._

_You're hopeless when it comes to her._

Lucille smiles. 

She is.

Her heart had decided on Valerie, and after a few uncertain days in the hospital, in both chapels, she'd decided to wave a white flag in defeat. 

The Lord had blessed her with love, and who was she to run away from it? 

_Could You do something about the heat, maybe? I want to rip my skin off right now..._

She really should not be praying to Him nak--

Valerie suddenly stirs in her sleep and rolls onto her back. Her head turns Lucille's way on the pillow, and Lucille's breath catches at how beautiful she is in this unguarded moment. 

Naked. 

Beside her. 

Mind somewhere else for the time being. 

Alive. 

Lucille's eyes water at the memories. 

She'd been hours away from losing her to that infection. Minutes away the night of the accident. 

She'd found that relevant medical journal back in February at Dr Turner's clinic, reading the pneumothorax section over and over until her vision blurred with tears and Mrs Turner was comforting her. It was on her -- their -- bookshelf now. Dr Turner had understood its importance to her. Lucille can see it's thin edge among her larger books by the low light of the moon. 

She's being overly emotional in her exhaustion, that's all. 

She just needs to get some sleep. 

She sits up on her elbows and squints over Val at the alarm clock, seeing both hands well past two.

She lets out a sigh and settles on her side, hand coming up to her temple as she rests on it. 

Valerie sleeps on beside her, safe. 

Lucille watches her, letting her mind calm.

_"Worked out what I'm giving you for your birthday."_

_"Val, you gave it to me yesterday -- a necklace for my cross."_

_"No, something else."_

It had been her cigarette lighter in a small white box, tied with that silly pink ribbon of hers she used for her walking stick. Lucille had told her she wouldn't last the weekend without a smoke, knowing the comment would fuel Val's determination.

She was a Dyer, after all. 

That had been over a week ago. 

She'd been a moody so and so for the first few days, but her snoring had greatly reduced, a fact Lucille was not surprised by in the slightest. She'd read enough about respiratory afflictions to know the smoke Valerie was inhaling was affecting her sinuses.

_"Guess I should've listened to you sooner, Lulu."_

_"Please don't sing that terrible song again."_

Valerie had wailed the lengthy introduction of _Shout_ at her, off-key as usual, and Lucille had kissed it right off her lips. 

"Pity that cigarette-free lifestyle can't fix your tone-deafness."

Valerie doesn't stir. 

Lucille smiles to herself. Sees the way Val's chest rises and falls, her breathing measured in lower decibels now. 

It's a welcome change. 

"Still beautiful," Lucille says quietly. 

The scars across Val's chest -- the inch long one Lucille had made and the surgeons' larger two that spanned her ribs and abdomen -- have not maimed her beauty. Lucille's done her best not to draw attention to them in the few weeks they've been making love, remembering Valerie in the bathroom, self-conscious all those months ago. 

_"They're just signs of strength, Val. That's all."_

Her words had made an impact then, Valerie's shoulders squaring and her arms dropping. Her actions now were making a difference. Every time she kissed over those scars, treated them like the rest of Val's body, she was silently telling Val she was whole and complete, and worthy. 

"I love all of you," Lucille whispers, "Even that pitchy voice of yours. Even the fact you can sleep through anything. I envy you for it, but I love you just the same. Because you pay me back tenfold with your kindness and consideration. Quitting smoking for me. Rubbing my feet. Letting me use the rum for Cyril's cakes. That amazing thing you do with your tongue and mouth under the covers."

Just the thought of it was--

It's far too humid for any of that. 

"You treat me like a queen. Like I'm your everything."

Lucille knows she is in Val's eyes. She's recognised that unabashed joy in her face in the weeks since that night in the chapel. There'd been a sort of settling in Val, some heavy load lifted from her soul, as Lucille had promised her a lifetime of love.

She lifts her hand up to her neck and pinches at the cross, now attached to the necklace Val had given her.

It's the only thing she's wearing. Val too, with her equivalent. 

Goodness. Now she's just stating facts in her head. 

_Go to sleep, you fool._

The curtains are still swaying in the window.

Valerie is still breathing quietly and calmly. 

She's still and always will be the love of Lucille's life. 

Those scars of hers will fade over the years. Lucille will continue to kiss over the lot of them, only acknowledging them in quiet moments like this. 

Valerie will never be--

There's a brief spattering of something on the roof, akin to--

It begins raining, gentle outside the window, but there all the same. 

The temperature is sure to drop in the next hour or so. 

_Thank you, Lord._

Lucille laughs to herself. 

_Sorry about the nudity._

She settles herself on the pillow and closes her eyes. 

Sleep is just about to claim her when she feels the bed shift. Opening her eyes, she sees Valerie stepping towards the window, drawing back the curtains to see. 

Lucille watches her silently watch the rain. 

"A drop fell on the apple tree," Valerie whispers to herself. "Another, on the roof, a half a dozen kissed the eaves, and made the gables laugh." 

_Dickinson_ , Lucille realises. 

"A few went out to help the brook, that went to help the sea, myself conjectured were they pearls –-" Valerie pauses, hand coming up to touch Lucille's gift to her. "What necklaces could be." 

Lucille feels her heart ache and sing at the same time. She gets up quickly, already moving towards Valerie as she turns in surprise. 

"I thought you were asl--" 

Lucille kisses her and slides her arms around her. 

The heat will ease with the rain now.

Nothing will change her need for this woman.

_You're hopeless when it comes to her._

She wouldn't have it any other way. 


End file.
